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Reborn Mr Fix-it, Ahmed Chalabi, pulls Iraq out of darkness

MOST of Baghdad's street lamps went on last week for the first time in years. It was a small improvement in the quality of life, but in the twinkling light the Iraqi capital looked a little less menacing and a lot more familiar.

Ahmed Chalabi, the former darling of American neoconservatives who lobbied hard for the overthrow of Saddam and later became deputy prime minister, toured the city with quiet satisfaction. The street lamps were the clearest sign yet that the reconstruction of Baghdad, a city of rubble, concrete and blast walls, is not a forlorn hope.

In a remarkable political comeback two years after he failed to win a seat in the Iraqi parliament, Chalabi has re-emerged as a key player who could determine whether President George W Bush's effort to secure Baghdad succeeds. Earlier this month Nouri al-Maliki, the Iraqi prime minister, put Chalabi in charge of restoring